


The Tale of Jyoti

by SailorHaumea



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: 100 Year War (Avatar TV), Attempt at Humor, Book 2: Earth, Canon Compliant, Firebending & Firebenders, Gen, Humor, POV First Person, Pretty much entirely OCs - Freeform, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22273810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorHaumea/pseuds/SailorHaumea
Summary: "He's the first person ever to leave the army - and live. I'm the second, but you don't get to be a legend for that," is certainly true, as Chey said. Nor does the third deserter, or any of the subsequent deserters. This is the tale of one of those deserters, Jyoti, who decided to get out of there after she barely got out of the Siege of the North alive.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. Into the Unknown

You're probably looking for an introduction, right?

The name's Jyoti. I'm seventeen years old. I was born in the Fire Nation colony of Yu Dao. My family was one of the first to settle in Yu Dao after the Fire Nation set up shop there.

I joined the Fire Navy about seven months ago. Big mistake.

Especially considering that I'm crossing the ocean on a piece of _driftwood_ , having said "fuck that" to continued service in the Navy after a giant glowing fish spirit monster wiped out 95% of our fleet.

Which brings me to what was the other thing that made me quit - the fact that Admiral Zhao was so utterly insane he literally killed the Moon Spirit for a few minutes.

Do I want to see the world interconnect and progress? Absolutely. Do I want it to be brought about by the sword of a bunch of maniacs who _again, think getting rid of the Moon is a justifiable military action_? Absolutely not.

It's just now hitting me that I'm a deserter. Then again, everyone probably thinks I'm in a watery gave at the North Pole along with pretty much everyone else in the fleet.

Oh look, land. Haven't seen that in a while. I was starting to run out of food given that I've been adrift at sea for...I actually don't know. The days have started to run together.

My piece of driftwood runs aground about a half hour later. I collapse onto the beach.

"Thank you, Agni," I offer up.

I probably shouldn't have thanked him so quickly, considering that right after saying that, I find myself at the pointy end of an Earth Kingdom spear aimed at my face.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey, that's no way to treat a lady who's just been through a harrowing near-death experience!" I shout at the wielder of the spear, before realizing that he looks close to my age. Barely an adult. He's got brown hair and green eyes, and is wearing green and brown clothing. So basically he looks like _every other peasant in the Earth Kingdom_.

"You're Fire Nation. Your very existence is a harrowing near-death experience," the boy tries to counter.

What is wrong with this guy? Who randomly spouts off hateful nonsense like that at strangers?

"Okay, first of all, that's just blatant bigotry. You don't even know me. You don't get to just randomly assume I'm going to kill you because I'm Fire Nation," I snap at him.

"You're wearing a Fire Navy uniform!"

Oh yeah. "I haven't been able to change out of it since I've been adrift at sea for...I have no idea how long. Do you remember when the moon turned blood red?" I ask. It'd be nice to know how long I was drifting.

"That was two weeks ago," he answers.

Two weeks? Fuck. "Yeah, uhh, that's why I'm by myself. When your commanding officer causes _that_ by literally killing the Moon Spirit, you find that running away becomes quite appealing."

He lowers his spear. "...You're a deserter?" He seems shocked.

"Well, yeah. I wasn't about to continue siding with The People Who Kill Important Spirits," I point out.

"Fair enough."

I like this guy. "The name's Jyoti," I offer.

"I'm Ratna," he introduces himself.

I snort at the name. "Your parents are nobles, I take it, going by the name they gave you?"

He actually laughs at that. "No, they just _want_ to be nobility."

"So, what now?" I question. "Are we just gonna stand here all day?"

Ratna puts his hands to his chin. "I suppose we should get you a change of clothes. People might get the wrong idea from a woman walking around in a Fire Navy uniform," he suggests.

That's not a bad idea, actually. "Good idea." Then it hits me. "There is one other thing - you're way too trusting. I have no intention of betraying you or hurting you, but what if I had been lying to you? You gave me your name and you dropped your guard. If I was still loyal to the Fire Nation, you would quite possibly be dead right now," I point out.

Ratna rubs the back of his head, a bit ashamed as he realizes that I'm entirely right. "Yeah, I was just caught by surprise by you saying you were a deserter. It made me trust you."

"After I get a new set of clothes, I'm gonna have to teach you how to not get yourself killed, aren't I?" I groan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working off of the assumption that the age of adulthood in the Avatar universe is 16, for the record. This just means that the characters will mostly be able to walk around without people commenting on them being underage and traveling by themselves.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jyoti gets filled in on what has transpired since the Siege of the North.

It wasn't hard to get a change of clothes. There wasn't anything that could be done about my eyes being amber, which immediately screams "Fire Nation" to everyone, but I could at least get out of the Fire Navy uniform. I've decided to hold onto it just in case. You never know, I might need to disguise myself as a member of the Fire Navy sometime.

It hits me that given that it's been two weeks since the Siege of the North, the situation could be completely different. Half of the Fire Navy is sitting at the bottom of the sea at the North Pole.

"So what's happened the past two weeks?" I ask Ratna.

"The Fire Nation threw itself at the Northern Water Tribe a second time. They failed again. The Avatar and his friends left the North Pole about a week ago. I'm not sure where they are now," he explains. "Oh, there was a prison break at a Fire Nation prison a while back, at Nongmin Jianyu."

I frown at that. "I escorted a very important prisoner there a few months ago. She was an inventor of some kind," I offer.

"I don't know about any specific details," Ratna sighs.

I suppose there's nothing we can do about that at the moment. I clap my hands together. "Right, I was going to teach you how to not get yourself killed," I remind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few notes!
> 
> I know, the chapter is rather short. It's largely just exposition and giving an idea of where in Book 2 we actually are.
> 
> Nongmin Jianyu isn't a very creative name. It's literally just 農民監獄, Chinese for "peasant prison." The prison in question is never given a name, so I just made one up.
> 
> The second Fire Nation attempt at capturing the North Pole, plus the prison break and the escaped inventor prisoner, are events that took place in the first ATLA video game. I think I'm dating the events of this chapter currently as being roughly contemporaneous with Book 2, Chapter 2: The Cave of Two Lovers.


	4. Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jyoti and Ratna do some practice sparring.

We set up a makeshift fighting area where we could spar. I wanted to know how skilled Ratna was.

"Before we start, are you a bender?" I ask.

He nods. "I'm an earthbender."

"I'm a firebender," I offer. ”So this won't be unfair."

Ratna laughs at this. "I wouldn't say that. So are we going to spar?"

I nod.

We assume fighting stances.

I produce a dagger of flame in each hand, while he summons rocks.

I make the first move. For a long time, I've got the upper hand. He's constantly dodging my jabs, clearly afraid of getting burned.

"I know getting burned hurts, but you could at least _try_ to fight back," I tease.

And he does. He jumps backwards and flicks his wrist before I realize what's coming. An earth pillar knocks me off my feet.

"Well done." I get to my feet. My praise is sincere. I should have seen the attack coming. And then I realize he wasn't scared of being burned. He was trying to exhaust me, and catch me off guard. "You certainly were believable when pretending to be afraid of my fire."

Ratna grins and then bows to me. I bow back.

"It appears you know how to fight. You're just rather gullible when it comes to interacting with strangers," I observe, and he nods in agreement. "Shall we go again?"

He's grinning again. It seems he does this a lot.

This time, he goes on the offensive, sending rocks at me as I duck and weave and jump to avoid them. I bring up a wall of fire in the hopes of deflecting his attacks, then resume my...acrobatic dodges.

I finally notice a weak point in him. I notice he's left-handed. That's not something you see every day. So I feint an attack on him from his left before shifting to attack from his right at the last second. I don't actually hit him, of course, because I don't want to burn my new sparring partner and potential friend, but the surprise of the attack leaves him off balance. I summon fire at my feet and spin around, producing a wheel of flame around me, and he jumps to avoid it, falling over when he returns to the ground, having lost his bearings.

"Seems like we're pretty evenly matched," I remark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think I'm very good at writing descriptions of combat, but I did my best.


End file.
